Advances in electronic communications technologies have interconnected people perhaps better than ever before. For example, the Internet is accessible on all continents of the planet, and costs to access the Internet are relatively low in industrialized nations of the world. However, low-cost access to the Internet is not readily available in certain geographic areas. For example, on the open ocean, access to the Internet is limited to satellite-based systems that are expensive to maintain, require costly hardware and service, and are limited to the footprint of a satellite and its earth station connection. For at least these reasons, there is a need for improved network access technologies, including technologies that can expand the network footprints of established networks and/or provide low-cost access to established networks such as the Internet from the open ocean or other geographic areas where the Internet is not readily or cost-effectively accessible.